A-Rod makes slam history

Yankees' 3B hits 24th to break tie with legend Gehrig

Associated Press

Associated Press

Published 11:54 pm, Friday, September 20, 2013

NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 20: Alex Rodriguez #13 of the New York Yankees watches his hit fly out of the park and turn into a grand slam in the seventh inning against the San Francisco Giants during interleague play on September 20, 2013 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 163495643

Alex Rodriguez's record-breaking grand slam was a big one for the Yankees, who can only hope it came in time for a last-gasp run at the playoffs.

Rodriguez set a major-league mark with his 24th career slam, passing Lou Gehrig with a tiebreaking shot in the seventh inning that sent New York to a 5-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Friday night.

"It means I'm getting old," said Rodriguez, 38. "It's hard to think about things like that right now. We're really on a sprint to the end here and every win is huge for us."

More importantly for the Yankees, it carried them to their second win in seven games as they cling to faint playoff hopes. New York, which has eight games remaining, pulled within three of the second AL wild card — with three other teams in between. Cleveland's 2-1, rain-shortened win over Houston, moved them a half-game ahead of Texas, which began the day tied with Tampa Bay atop the standings but lost 2-1 to Kansas City.

"It's an unbelievable accomplishment and it's a big one for us," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "I don't know if we can afford to lose any more games."

Alfonso Soriano also homered and New York opened its final homestand with a much-needed victory, hours after pitcher Andy Pettitte announced his plans to retire — again — following this season.

Rookie outfielder Juan Perez, back home in the Bronx, hit an RBI double for the Giants. The defending World Series champions have spent all week in New York — they took two of three from the Mets at Citi Field, where a large throng of vocal San Francisco fans made them feel right at home.

Giants rooters came out in the Bronx, too, easy to spot in their orange or black jerseys. An audible chant of "Let's go Giants!" quickly drew boos from Yankees fans in the crowd of 41,734.

With the score tied at 1, Eduardo Nunez grounded a single through the right side to start the seventh. Lincecum (10-14) hit Brendan Ryan with a pitch and walked Ichiro Suzuki with two outs, loading the bases and ending the right-hander's night.

Rodriguez, hampered by a sore leg lately, reached out and lofted a 2-1 pitch from George Kontos toward the hitter-friendly dimensions in right field for his 654th career homer.